Ridgewood revises Zabriskie-Schedler House turf field application to NJ. What changed

RIDGEWOOD — The village has submitted a revised application to build a multipurpose turf sports field on the historic Zabriskie-Schedler House property on West Saddle River Road to the State Historic Preservation Office.

The application was originally submitted to the state on Feb. 16, but it was deemed "not yet technically and professionally complete" by the state office, said a four-page letter to the village dated March 22.

In the letter, Jennifer Leynes, the State Historic Preservation Office's project specialist, outlined a list of materials to be added, subtracted or given additional detail.

This week Village Manager Keith Kazmark said the "application is moving forward."

"The village of Ridgewood submitted a revised application to the State Historic Preservation Office regarding this long-awaited project," Kazmark said. "The revision includes an independent assessment conducted by Suburban Consulting Engineers Inc. relative to field use in the village, which addresses comments made by the Historic Preservation Office in a letter dated March 22. A specific project narrative was also included in the revised application."

Opposition vs. support

The revised application is posted on the village website, ridgewoodnj.net, first as one document, followed by a five-part version for easier access. It now totals 1,238 pages, up from 1,195.

Petitions and letters opposing the proposal now total 593 pages, or 48% of the application.

In her letter, Leynes instructed the village to remove 53 pages of letters in support of restoring the house from Appendix 3 and 62 pages of letters in support of restoring the house from Appendix 17 as "not relevant" to the sports field application. The two appendices in the revised submission are marked "removed from application per SHPO review letter dated March 22," and are blank.

The original application also had five letters of support for the current field project in February's Appendix 17, two from residents Rurik Halby (Page 200) and Jin Lee (Page 201), and three letters from Ridgewood sports associations: the Ridgewood Junior Football Association (Pages 202, 204 to 206), the Maroons Soccer Club (Page 198), and the Ridgewood Lacrosse Association (Page 203).

In the revised application, Lee's letter is posted without identifying the headline in the introduction section of Appendix 1 (Page 70) with a new letter of support from resident Chuck Handy (Page 69). The Halaby and sports association letters of support were not reposted, making these the only two letters of support in the entire application.

An Oct. 18, 2023, letter from Ridgewood's Historic Preservation Commission's Joseph Suplicki confirming that the commission "voted unanimously not to oppose the plan" is posted as Appendix 2 in the revision, presumably to demonstrate community support. However, Suplicki's term and that of fellow historian Peggy Norris were not renewed in December after they submitted a joint letter to the the state objecting to the new plan.

The first instruction in Leynes' letter was for the village to produce a list of "government units and statewide or local organizations with an interest in historic preservation" and their addresses. Leynes specified that the list must include Friends of Schedler and the Capt. Abraham Godwin Chapter of the New Jersey Society, Sons of the American Revolution, which are among six such organizations copied at the bottom of her letter. On Thursday, Kazmark identified eight such agencies listed at the end of his introductory letter on Pages 6 and 7 as "the list," but without addresses.

Revision responses

A six-page response to Leynes' letter follows Kazmark's introductory letter on Pages 9 to 12, pointing to places with more detailed information throughout the revised report.

The primary change in the application is a 19-page field assessment listed as Appendix 37 at the end of Part 4, but actually contained in Part 5 of the revised submission. The report by Suburban Consulting answers many of Leynes' questions about current field use and conditions. Kazmark said Suburban has previously done landscape design and "fine-tuning" of the original application.

Consultant Peter Primavera, hired by the village in April 2023, "did historical research on the designation of the Historical Registry and consulted on the form, content and historical basis for both the original application and the resubmission," Kazmark said. Primavera did not appear to issue any rebuttal to statements made about the historic value of the property in a 2019 Hunter Research report included in its entirety in the February and May applications.

The Zabriskie-Schedler property will be the subject of a special Village Council meeting on May 22 at 7:30 p.m. at Village Hall for the introduction of a bond ordinance to finance work and site preparation.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Ridgewood revises Zabriskie-Schedler House turf field application to NJ. What changed